The Committee to Protect Journalists is marking World Press Freedom Day, Saturday, May 3, by naming the World’s Worst Places to Be a Journalist. The list of 10 places represents the full range of current threats to press freedom.

At the top of the list is Iraq, where nine journalists covering the U.S.-led war there were killed in action during the first three weeks of hostilities, falling victim to Iraqi or U.S. fire, land mines, or suicide bombers. Four other journalists in Iraq died in accidents or from illness. A brutal crackdown launched in Cuba by Fidel Castro’s government put an unprecedented 28 journalists behind bars in March, and they are serving lengthy prison terms of up to 27 years. During the last year, independent journalists in Vietnam who dared to criticize the ruling Communist Party in print or on the Internet were harassed, placed under heavy surveillance, or thrown in jail. CPJ also placed Afghanistan, Chechnya, the West Bank and Gaza, Eritrea, Togo, Colombia, and Belarus on the list of Worst Places to Be a Journalist.

“Many journalists who report from these places have made the ultimate sacrifice; others are in jail serving long sentences,” said CPJ acting director Joel Simon. “But their colleagues persevere, confronting government crackdowns, physical violence, harsh press laws, and indiscriminate gunfire to bring us the news,” said Simon.

IRAQ
The U.S.-led war in Iraq has exacted a heavy toll on those covering the conflict. Nine journalists were killed in action during the first three weeks of hostilities by Iraqi or U.S. fire, land mines, or suicide bombers. (Four others died in accidents or from illness.) Several more were wounded, and two remain missing. Those not in the line of fire encountered other hardships: U.S. or Iraqi forces inside Iraq temporarily detained more than 24 journalists. While the bulk of the fighting appears finished, safety conditions for journalists remain precarious: Banditry, gunfire, and physical attacks will likely make Iraq a dangerous assignment for the foreseeable future.

CUBA
In March, with international attention focused on the war in Iraq, Cuban authorities launched a sweeping crackdown on dissidents, including the island’s fledging independent press. In all, 28 journalists were arrested, convicted during one-day summary trials, sentenced to between 14 and 27 years in prison, and dispersed to serve their sentences in the many jails of the Cuban gulag.

The crackdown, while unprecedented in its scale, is the culmination of years of repression and intimidation, including jailings, forced exile, confiscation of property, suspension of phone service, and orchestrated harassment by pro-government mobs. Cuban journalists, who dictate and fax their stories about human rights violations and petty corruption to their colleagues abroad, pose a direct challenge to the information monopoly that the government of President Fidel Castro Ruz maintains on the island.

VIETNAM
During the last year, authorities in Vietnam have intensified their repression on independent writers and political dissidents. Those who publish news or opinions that contradict the Communist Party line are harassed, placed under heavy surveillance, or jailed. The government typically accuses independent journalists of endangering national security and treats even moderate criticism of the government or support for democratic reform as treasonous offenses. Eight journalists are currently languishing in Vietnam’s prisons or are under house arrest. In recent months, local journalists have expressed fears of an even broader crackdown following reports that authorities have compiled a nationwide “blacklist” of writers and dissidents.

As independent journalists increasingly turn to the Internet to distribute news or information barred from the official media, the government has tightened already strict regulations governing Internet content and intensified online surveillance. Five of Vietnam’s imprisoned journalists were targeted for online publishing—including Nguyen Khac Toan, who was sentenced in December 2002 to 12 years in prison, one of the harshest sentences handed down to a journalist in recent years. In mid-April, the official army newspaper Quan Doi Nhan Dan published an editorial arguing for additional controls on the Internet and more severe punishment of those who circulate “reactionary and depraved content” online.

AFGHANISTAN
The unchecked power of local warlords and weak rule of law make Afghanistan an inhospitable environment for the press. Despite the new freedoms enjoyed by the media after the ouster of the repressive Taliban regime, journalists say it is impossible to write and speak freely because of threats, physical intimidation, and assault. These abuses are often committed by politicians and military commanders who use government security forces to harass independent journalists.

Though leaders of Afghanistan’s transitional administration—including President Hamid Karzai—have publicly championed press freedom, they have not moved aggressively to stop attacks against the press. In mid-March, for example, a reporter working for the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty was beaten, detained, and expelled from the western province of Herat on the orders of local governor and powerful warlord Ismail Khan. In many cases, journalists do not publicize such attacks and practice self-censorship for fear of further reprisals. CPJ has documented several instances where journalists have temporarily gone underground or fled after receiving threats.

CHECHNYA
Journalists in Chechnya endure physical violence, threats, and the everyday brutalities of war. In the last decade, 18 journalists have been killed there for their work. And today, only a handful are willing to risk their lives by reporting from the region. Those who dare to go find themselves caught in the middle of an intense propaganda war between the Kremlin and Chechen rebels. Journalists working in Chechnya officially are mostly confined to a military press center, where they receive filtered information. Travel is only allowed with elaborate police escorts, making independent reporting impossible. Others who cross into Chechnya clandestinely to investigate human rights abuses and portray an unsanctioned picture of the conflict face detention and physical attacks from Russian forces. Foreign correspondents whose coverage of the region is deemed anti-Russian are often denied visas or even blacklisted by the Foreign Ministry. These policies have succeeded in the government’s goal of preventing journalists from reporting on the war’s devastation.

THE WEST BANK AND GAZA
Indiscriminate gunfire from the Israeli army made the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip a treacherous beat. Three journalists have been killed by Israeli gunfire there in the last 12 months, including cameraman Nazeh Darwazeh, who was shot in the head at close range by an Israeli soldier in April despite being well marked as a member of the press. Israeli soldiers are rarely punished when they shoot journalists.

Journalists operating near the front lines in the West Bank and Gaza continue to face a variety of other obstacles. In recent months, journalists have been wounded by Israeli military strikes; the Israeli army has closed Palestinian radio stations; and military checkpoints and a tough Israeli government policy limiting press accreditation continue to hamper reporting. Militant Jewish settlers, meanwhile, perpetrate violent attacks against journalists, and Palestinian security forces and militias have physically assaulted, threatened, and confiscated materials from journalists.

ERITREA
Eritrea has been Africa’s foremost jailer of journalists since September 2001, when the government banned the entire private press and detained independent reporters. Eighteen journalists are now in secret jails across the tiny Red Sea nation. An active member of the coalition that backed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, President Isaias Afewerki variously accuses independent journalists of terrorist ties, espionage, and “endangering national unity.” Authorities continue to insist that the private press also operated without proper licenses, and that independent journalists routinely evaded the compulsory National Service Program.

The ruling party has a firm grip on the state media, whose employees face censorship and also practice self-censorship. Afewerki has been unfazed by persistent international denunciation of his human rights record and continues to dismiss foreign critics as enemies of Eritrea.

TOGO
Since the government passed a harsh press law in January 2000, Togo has become one of the worst places to practice journalism in sub-Saharan Africa. In late March 2003, the government temporarily banned all foreign correspondents in the country from working in reprisal for the press’s failure to cover the opening of a conference in the capital, Lomé, on African elections. Several journalists have been imprisoned during the last three years for press offenses; others have gone into hiding to avoid arrest. At the order of the Interior Ministry, police routinely seize entire editions of newspapers from printing facilities. Authorities have closed media outlets, such as the independent stations Radio Victoire and Tropik FM, blocked news Web sites, and jammed the frequencies of broadcasters critical of President Gnassingbé Eyadéma or his ruling Rassemblement du Peuple Togolais. In September 2002, the Togolese Parliament passed a new Press Code amendment that drastically increases the penalties for press offenses. A journalist can now be imprisoned for up to five years and fined US$8,000 for “insulting the Head of State.”

COLOMBIA
The 40-year-old Colombian civil war has taken a brutal toll on the country’s press: More than 30 journalists have been killed in the last decade because of their work, and they continue to be targeted. CPJ is investigating the murders of two journalists who were killed last week, possibly to silence them. In addition, Luis Eduardo Alfonso, a reporter with Radio Meridiano-70, was murdered on March 18, 2003, after criticizing the paramilitaries, which are fighting, along with government forces, against leftist guerrillas.

Meanwhile, the government’s lack of control over vast areas of the country makes journalists particularly vulnerable to attack from rebels and paramilitaries. In January, rebel fighters kidnapped two foreign journalists who were on assignment for the Los Angeles Times and held them for several days. The government’s failure to prosecute these crimes perpetuates a climate of impunity that leaves the media wide open to violence and has led many journalists to go into exile.

BELARUS
Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko continues his assault against the country’s beleaguered independent and opposition press. In April 2003, he announced plans to create a “state ideology system” that will give the government Big Brother–like controls over the nonstate media’s news coverage. Meanwhile, the proposed Law on Mass Media will make Internet publications subject to the same crippling censorship as the printed press.

In 2002, for the first time, journalists in Belarus were convicted of criminal libel and received corrective labor sentences ranging from 12 to 24 months for criticizing Lukashenko ahead of fall 2001 presidential elections. Politically motivated civil libel lawsuits, with exorbitant fines, continue to debilitate the media, forcing one prominent independent publication to close in 2002.

The July 2000 disappearance of Russian cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky is a chilling reminder of the risks faced by journalists in Belarus. Although two former members of Belarus’ elite Almaz special forces unit were convicted in 2002 of kidnapping the journalist, state prosecutors failed to investigate allegations of government involvement. The Prosecutor General’s Office reopened the Zavadsky case in December, but no progress has been reported.